November 08, 2017

How does the new CBC The National fare in the news landscape?

Fewer stories. More in-depth coverage. Analysis from the new anchors, sometimes interviewing each other. The new music imagines journalism through a Philip Glass.

The National was a very different news program in its debut Monday night and not just because there were 4 new anchors: Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton, Andrew Chang, and Ian Hanomansing.

The idea that a local killing of a police officer in Abbotsford, BC, however tragic, would be the lead story on a national newscast was a bit of a stunner. The Abbotsford story led into more dramatic coverage of the Texas shooting with Paul Hunter and Keith Boag being very cynical about Americans changing over guns.

Chang and Hanomansing had an exchange on this story. Chang noted that you have to go back 30 years for a similar policeman fatal shooting. Presumably, Chang meant Abbotsford. From 1961-2015, 10 officers in British Columbia were killed by the direct actions of other people, according to Statistics Canada. Both Chang and Hanomansing point out they know Abbotsford. Chang identified that Abbotsford is an hour east of Vancouver, where Chang is based and where Hanomansing was before being shifted to Toronto for the new The National.

The major story outside the top of the news was Adrienne Arsenault's look into the ruins in Raqqa, Syria. Hanomansing interviewed Arsenault on set after the story ran. The anchors are both in Toronto. The conversation flowed well and you got some important details outside the story.

This is the type of coverage that will enhance The National.

Barton and Chang had a nice exchange talking about living in Quebec in relation to the election of Valérie Plante as the first female mayor of Montréal. There wasn't much said about that, but this could be a pipeline to what we will see in the coming days and weeks.

As they noted at the end of the newscast, there won't always be all 4 people anchoring on the same night. Judging on one newscast isn't completely fair either, but a few observations can be made.

Each of the 4 anchors will play to their strength. Barton handled the domestic politics and anchored some of the lighter stories. Chang will be more of the anchor when others are on assignment. Hanomansing and Arsenault will end up interviewing each other either in person or while in the field.

The newscast will need to be flexible as they set up stories for the debut such as the Raqqa story. Analysis with stories sounds like a great way to distinguish the newscast, but there will have to be more substantive analysis in newscasts to follow.

And there will be days when more stories need to be covered.

The debut seems like a good start. This is no longer Peter Mansbridge's The National, but these 4 anchors and the reporters and others behind them still need to figure out where this experiment will go.

With apologies to Falco's Rock Me Amadeus, here is the transition timeline.

Date

Moment

September 5, 2016

Peter Mansbridge announces his retirement.

July 1, 2017

Peter Mansbridge anchors his final broadcast of The National.

August 1, 2017

The announcement is made to bring in 4 anchors.

November 6, 2017

The new version of The National is unveiled.

So what happens on the weekend? Wendy Mesley had been the Friday and Sunday anchor with Andrew Nichols on Saturdays. Mesley will be hosting a new live Sunday morning program on CBC and CBC News Network on the intersection of media, technology, and politics in 2018.

We'll be curious to see how the new format runs on all 7 days of the week.

If you get your CBC news via the World at Six on CBC Radio One, you'll find a similar format to The National. Susan Bonner featured the same stories at the top. Bonner took a lot more time on the Raqqa story than the newscast would normally do. Fewer stories might work on TV, but radio plays well with a digest version of many stories.

The radio version was almost note for note what was on The National broadcast that night in the beginning. We don't need an audio version of The National. If that tone continues, the World at Six will not be as useful to find out what is happening in the world since we'll know less about what is happening.

When Bonner isn't in the chair, her replacements might have more difficulty keeping up with the new format.

The Haida Gwaii kicker story on Monday night on trying to save its language is the kind of story that radio does very well. World At Six needs to keep that in mind.

Like the TV version, the World This Weekend may not be as aggressive as the weekday version, but we'll find that out in fewer than 7 days.